Mobile POS Has the Potential for More than Just Ending Long Lines

Author: Krista Garcia

January 17, 2018

A recent study by mobile services provider Stratix and IHL Group found retailers in North America that deployed mobile point-of-sale (POS) technology experienced a 24% average increase in sales during 2017 compared with those that didn’t offer mobile checkout in-store.

This increase in sales could also be attributed to the human holding the device. The study reported that some of the keys to success were maintaining eye contact and transacting side by side so the customer could see the screen.

Deploying mobile POS technology is easier said than done, though. Three-quarters of retailers surveyed said a leading challenge was not having the right apps in place to make the devices useful. Such apps give store associates the ability to access a retailer’s complete inventory, or provide customer-related data such as order history.

A majority of retailers also said they lacked adequately trained staff to implement mobile POS strategies, and that they suffered from a scarcity of internal help desk support.

Roughly one-third (34%) of respondents had deployed mobile POS, while 31% planned to do so over the next 12 months. An additional 8% planned to roll out the technology sometime in the next 12 to 24 months.

An RIS News study, also using IHL Group data, found that half of department stores had already implemented a mobile POS plan or planned to do so within 12 months. That was more than any other retailer segment. Only 35% of food, drug and convenience stores were in the same position, while the figure was 31% for general merchandise retailers.

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